This invention relates to a deployment method by which software is made usable by a server. More specifically, the invention relates to a quick deployment technique.
Known techniques of running plural servers include one in which an OS (Operating System) is introduced to each of plural blade servers or rackmount servers and one in which a server is logically divided to manage many hardware resources and software resources in a centralized manner.
In adding a server to a blade server system, an OS has to be deployed in the server to be added.
A conventional technique of deploying an OS in a server is now described. A blade server system backs up a hard disk where a currently operating OS is stored. Then a master disk is created from the hard disk storing the OS lacking disk-specific information, and the created master disk is copied to another disk. The thus backed-up information is returned to the hard disk storing the OS. In this way, the blade server system prepares the master disk in advance.
The created master disk lacks disk-specific information. The disk-specific information includes a computer name, network-related information, and the like. When a deployment request is made, the blade server system copies the master disk to a local disk of the relevant server via an IP (Internet Protocol) network such as Ethernet. Disk-specific information is set to the local disk to which the master disk is copied, thereby completing the deployment.
The master disk may contain disk-specific information. In this case, the disk-specific information contained in the master disk is rewritten, after the master disk is copied, by a dedicated program to set new disk-specific information.
This conventional technique takes time to finish deployment since a copy is made via an IP network. Furthermore, many copies are necessary to create in advance a master disk lacking disk-specific information, which puts a huge burden on the administrator of the system.
Some blade server systems to solve these problems have been known (see JP 2002-278769 A, for example). A blade server system of this type has a master disk that handles plural OSs. A request to deploy one of the OSs starts copying of the master disk, via FC (Fiber Channel), to a logical disk in a disk array system that is connected to the relevant server.